What is Warehousing?

Warehousing is the act of storing goods that will be sold or distributed later. While a small, home-based business might be warehousing products in a spare room, basement, or garage, larger businesses typically own or rent space in a building that is specifically designed for storage.

Warehousing is the storing of physical goods before they are sold. Warehouses safely and securely store products in an organized way to track where items are located, when they arrived, how long they have been there, and the quantity on hand.

In ecommerce, products are stored until an order is placed online, at which point the order is shipped directly to the consumer from the facility in which it was stored. In traditional retail, inventory may be temporarily stored in a warehouse before it’s shipped to a brick and mortar store.

For small or new businesses, warehousing may be done from home until they outgrow the space. At that point, a business will have to rent storage space, lease a warehouse, outsource logistics to a third party and store inventory in their facility.